If this film were a little edgier and a little timelier, it could have been the “Spinal Tap” of country music. Although its mockumentary format has been done to death, its solid cast holds the film together with insightful and funny performances as a group of empty-headed, often greed-motivated would-be country music stars. The film is packed with cameos; logical appearances by country luminaries like Willie Nelson, and surreal ones like Henry “The Fonz” Winkler as Dill’s manager, or Robert “Hart to Hart” Wagner as a cowboy boot manufacturer. Notably, Sheryl Crow wrote the film’s wacky country songs, with lyrics that take country music’s cheating wife/dead dog/battered pickup truck æsthetics to hilarious extremes. There are few roll-in-the-aisle funny gags, but the film is packed with a million sly, tiny zingers that will make you grin. Country music fans will definitely get much more out of this film than the regular viewer.
